Hey fellow CTers, What is your opinion on the long-term outlook for Canadian cents, both the older large and newer small types? A few years ago I bought some very nice large Canadian cents, certified by CCCS. And, probably like most collectors of US coinage, I've got small Canadian cents stashed away that we've come upon through the years. Thanks, Steve
I'm hoping prices are depressed and stay there until I complete the Mint State set of Large Cents I'm working on. These seem to be very much like early US copper, in the sense that there's a small but highly dedicated subset of collectors into them, and those who collect tend to specialize in very concentrated fashion. They'll never be Morgan Dollars, but there's typically over 8,000 Large Cents alone listed on Ebay at any given time. I don't see them "falling out of favor," ever, and time will only increase the appeal.
Something else that comes to mind: It seems to me that the Canadians minted quantities very much closer to actual demand (especially with the Vickies) than their US counterparts, and as a result Mint State pieces are much less common as a percentage of availability than ours. I'm finding availability of truly nice pieces to be an important factor in my searches for them.
I just collect the little darlings from circulation finds, last was a 1951 GVI in a roll search yesterday. Best was a 1925 a few years ago.
Millions to billions of the newer small types exist, so people probably won't have much trouble obtaining what they want of that type. So my opinion is that the long term outlook for those seems pretty flat. Remember that one can still buy decent 1,000 to 2,000 year old Roman coins for well under $100. For the early large cent types the long term outlook, similar to US large cents, looks pretty good for the highest grades. Lower grade coins of any type don't tend to move as much with the exception of mega-rarities like the 1916-D Mercury, etc. Of course the highest grade coins have a high entry price. So it goes. Something relatively cheap and easy to obtain will probably remain relatively cheap and easy to obtain. That's the reality of the investment side of this hobby.
